In the upcoming expansion, players will be able to explore the long-lost continent of Pandaria, which has remained hidden from the world since the sundering of Azeroth over ten thousand years ago. In the aftermath of the Cataclysm played out in World of Warcraft’s third expansion, Pandaria’s heroes are emerging from their land’s lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains to choose sides in the escalating war between the Alliance and the Horde and to share the extraordinary secrets of their ancient martial arts. As tensions between the factions near a breaking point following the discovery of this new world, players will be called upon to explore Pandaria’s exotic expanses, make contact with its strange indigenous creatures, and unlock the world-changing secrets that have been hiding in the mists for millennia.

New features coming in the game’s fourth expansion include:

New Playable Race -- Pandaren: Adventure through Azeroth as World of Warcraft's first neutral race and decide whether to side with the Alliance or the Horde.

New Playable Class -- Monk: Unlock the secrets of pandaren martial arts and do battle as a damage dealer, healer, or tank.

Level Cap Increased to 90:Learn potent new spells and abilities while exploring uncharted zones and taking on challenging new content.

New Zones:Explore the lush Jade Forest, treacherous Kun-Lai Summit, and other exotic areas of Pandaria designed for high-level characters, and uncover the mystery of the Wandering Isle.

Scenarios: Join up with some friends to achieve a common goal, such as mounting a defense against invading monsters, in a flexible new type of PvE challenge.

Dungeon “Challenge” Modes: Master the ultimate five-player time trial to earn prestige rewards in a new dungeon mode that will put your resolve and coordination to the test.

Pet Battles: Challenge other players’ companion pets with your own collection in a new tactical mini-game, and find out who's king or queen of the pint-sized battlefield.

New Talent System: Customize your character to suit your play style with the newly overhauled and improved talent system.

lvitriol wrote on Oct 23, 2011, 09:18:The "Pandas has been in the lore for a long time pal." defense that I have seen several times now is so stupid as probably everyone knows about pandarians, maybe they have read about or done the barrens Q or seen the ingame Pandarian brewmaster pet or read about them in a WoW book or played WC3, they aren't exactly Tigons.

It does not make any difference if they have been in the lore for 3 centuries or not, the exp pack still gonna make half the playerbase quit, no doubt about it just look at the number of youtube dislikes.

I have 330 days /played but this preview made me laugh so hard.

Who cares how long they have been in the lore? They're a gimmicky addition to it no matter the length. Monks, really? As if WoW didn't have enough melee DPS classes. This is why most MMOs should have an ending, they eventually run out of ideas.

AnointedSword wrote on Oct 23, 2011, 06:40:oh...where are the WOw is dead crowd? Oo Just stating that I told you so...Blizzard will keep supporting Wow until Titan takes over and even then they might keep Wow running. I will put this in numbers for you...Wow could lose 90% of subs and still be more popular than any of its competition. Now sit and think about that one...

WoW is dying, not dead. That's what people generally mean by "WoW is dead". Obviously they're not going to shut down their servers permanently overnight when they've still got over 10 mil active subs, and you're an idiot for thinking that's what anyone ever meant.

Personally, I couldn't care less. I quit WoW 9 months ago and have never missed it less.

The "Pandas has been in the lore for a long time pal." defense that I have seen several times now is so stupid as probably everyone knows about pandarians, maybe they have read about or done the barrens Q or seen the ingame Pandarian brewmaster pet or read about them in a WoW book or played WC3, they aren't exactly Tigons.

It does not make any difference if they have been in the lore for 3 centuries or not, the exp pack still gonna make half the playerbase quit, no doubt about it just look at the number of youtube dislikes.

oh...where are the WOw is dead crowd? Oo Just stating that I told you so...Blizzard will keep supporting Wow until Titan takes over and even then they might keep Wow running. I will put this in numbers for you...Wow could lose 90% of subs and still be more popular than any of its competition. Now sit and think about that one...

Well, if they match their recent announcement to release cycles you won't be seeing this until Xmas next year at the soonest, maybe not until Feb. 2013. My subscription is up on Dec. 13th and I'm pretty sure I'm done for good. But I'll keep an eye on this over the next year...

Umbragen wrote on Oct 22, 2011, 18:54:True, enough. I know little about the history of Warcraft. I'm not a big fan of strategy games. What I do have, is a family full of lawyers, multiple generations of lawyers, I understand them quite well. A bit of prior art is not necessarily an adequate defense.

Try again, Mr Not-A-Lawyer that's trying to co-opt his family's expertise in the matter. It's not a two sentence blurb from years ago, it's a well detailed race used in a tabletop RPG, a card game, now in multiple video games, several books.

Dreamworks would get slapped down and a counter-suit would be filed instantly if they tried it.

True, enough. I know little about the history of Warcraft. I'm not a big fan of strategy games. What I do have, is a family full of lawyers, multiple generations of lawyers, I understand them quite well. A bit of prior art is not necessarily an adequate defense.

Umbragen wrote on Oct 22, 2011, 10:20:I'm going to presume Dreamworks' lawyers are a good bit sharper than the dim bulbs ZeniMax, they may actually succeed in suing Blizzivision, they may even do it without alienating their customer base.

I doubt it. Pandaren first appeared in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne in 2003, Kung Fu Panda wasn't released until 2008.

Yep. It's been fun reading all the people who know absolutely nothing about Warcraft history or lore talk about how Blizzard has done something shocking by creating an expansion centered around a race/character type they wrote into their storylines almost ten years ago. Not to mention one of the few races that people have been asking for.

Umbragen wrote on Oct 22, 2011, 10:20:I'm going to presume Dreamworks' lawyers are a good bit sharper than the dim bulbs ZeniMax, they may actually succeed in suing Blizzivision, they may even do it without alienating their customer base.

I doubt it. Pandaren first appeared in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne in 2003, Kung Fu Panda wasn't released until 2008.